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The Hill examines push to get more U.S. funding for malaria medicines

The Hill examines Medicines for Malaria Venture's (MMV) efforts to get more U.S. funding for its work. According to the newspaper, the group is "asking USAID and Congress to redirect more money beginning next year to drug research and development from a pot of funds used to cover the range of efforts to treat and prevent malaria, such as providing mosquito nets."

3 Dec 2009

Experiments explain factors behind common malarial symptoms

When people have malaria, they are infected with Plasmodium parasites, which enter the body from the saliva of a mosquito, infect cells in the liver, and then spread to red blood cells. Inside the blood cells, the parasites replicate and also begin to expose adhesive proteins on the cell surface that change the physical nature of the cells in the bloodstream.

23 Nov 2009

SynCon Chikungunya virus DNA vaccine induces protective neutralizing antibody responses in animal model

Inovio Biomedical Corporation, a leader in DNA vaccine design, development and delivery, announced today that the company's SynCon™ Chikungunya virus DNA vaccine induced protective neutralizing antibody responses in a preclinical non-human primate model.

18 Nov 2009

Report calls for refocusing health spending in developing countries to save children's lives

"More than 24,000 infants die daily from preventable diseases in developing countries," and child deaths have fallen in countries where governments "have shown a high level of political leadership on child health," World Vision International said in a new report (.pdf) released on Monday as part of a five-year campaign to reduce child deaths worldwide, the Associated Press/San Francisco Chronicle reports.

17 Nov 2009

Sterile Insect Technique can play a vital role in malaria elimination

The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), the release of sexually sterile male insects to wipe out a pest population, is one suggested solution to the problem of malaria in Africa. A new supplement, published in BioMed Central's open access Malaria Journal, reviews the history of the technique, and features details about aspects of its application in the elimination of malaria.

16 Nov 2009

Sterile Insect Technique: A solution to the problem of malaria in Africa

16 Nov 2009

Rainfall and temperature linked with dengue fever

Research published this week in PLoS Medicine demonstrates associations between local rainfall and temperature and cases of dengue fever, which affects an estimated fifty million people per year worldwide.

16 Nov 2009

Drug companies collaborate with nonprofit organizations to fight "neglected" diseases in the developing world

Drug companies and nonprofit organizations are joining forces to develop new drugs and vaccines to target so-called "neglected" diseases that claim millions of lives in the developing world each year. Those hard-to-treat diseases include malaria, tuberculosis, dengue fever, and other conditions. That's the topic of the cover story scheduled for the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly newsmagazine.

12 Nov 2009

Human movement is a key factor for dengue spread in Brazil

Human movement is a key factor of dengue virus inflow in Rio de Janeiro, according to results from researchers based at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Brazil. The results, based on data from a severe epidemic in 2007-2008, contribute to new understanding on the dynamics of dengue fever in the second largest city in Brazil. Details are published November 10 in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

10 Nov 2009

Calbiotech awarded a SBIR contract to develop analyte specific reagents for the diagnosis of Dengue virus

Calbiotech, Inc. announced today that it has been awarded a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I contract by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material command. Under terms of the agreement, Calbiotech will develop analyte specific reagents (ASRs) for the diagnosis of Dengue virus.

6 Nov 2009

cbm's initiative to help families break the cycle of poverty and disability

How can the gift of a goat this holiday season transform the life of a child in Africa?

6 Nov 2009

Malaria experts discuss eradication at MIM conference

In a session at the 5th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Pan-African Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, experts discussed the tools required to eradicate the disease and highlighted insecticide and drug resistance in some parts of the world, Xinhua reports. Researchers noted that resistance to artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) has been documented in western Cambodia and "has now also been reported in the west of Thailand and in eastern Myanmar," the news service writes (Ooko/Zhuoyun, 11/5).

6 Nov 2009

Also in global health news: Kenya child mortality; DRC rape; Cape Verde dengue outbreak; Guatemala malnutrition; East Africa flooding

"The most current data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics under the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) launched on Wednesday shows mortality among children under five years stands at 7.4 percent, while that of infants is at 5.2 percent," Business Daily reports.

5 Nov 2009

New strategy to eliminate and eradicate malaria unveiled

Marking its tenth anniversary year, the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) today unveiled a new strategy that sets the stage for an aggressive push targeting the long-term goal of eliminating and eradicating malaria

4 Nov 2009

Malaria Conference addresses RTS,S vaccine, tools, treatment

On Tuesday at the 5th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Pan-African Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, scientists and global health experts focused on malaria eradication, Agence France-Presse reports. "Key among the strategies ... is the development of an effective anti-malaria vaccine, a project scientists have been researching since the late 80s. ... RTS,S is the most clinically advanced malaria vaccine so far, according to the Malaria Vaccine Initiative," the news service writes (11/3).

3 Nov 2009

Opinions: Obstetric fistula; malaria and climate change

In a New York Times opinion piece, columnist Nicholas Kristof examines a new plan to tackle obstetric fistula, "a childbirth injury, often suffered by a teenager in Africa or Asia whose pelvis is not fully grown." According to Kristof, "Just about the happiest thing that can happen to such a woman is an encounter with Dr. Lewis Wall, an ob-gyn at Washington University in St. Louis.

3 Nov 2009

IVCC to launch new Malaria Decision Support System at MIM conference

IVCC will launch its new Malaria Decision Support System MDSS) at the 5th Pan-African Multilateral Initiative (MIM) conference in Nairobi, Kenya, 1-6 November 2009.

2 Nov 2009

New tools and interventions can help in eradicating malaria

Although malaria has been controlled in many local and regional populations, the permanent elimination of malaria parasites throughout the world remains an elusive goal, and the disease continues to claim nearly one million lives each year.

31 Oct 2009

Mosquitoes are attracted by naturally produced, dominant odor in humans

Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have identified the dominant odor naturally produced in humans and birds that attracts the blood-feeding Culex mosquitoes, which transmit West Nile virus and other life-threatening diseases.

27 Oct 2009

Widely used ssqPCR assay is not reliable, say researchers

In the course of doing research on the mosquito-borne pathogens chikungunya virus (CHIKV) and o' nyong-nyong virus (ONNV), Virginia Tech researchers have discovered an inconvenient truth about an assay, strand-specific quantitative real-time PCR (ssqPCR), increasingly being used to detect and measure replicating viral RNA in infected cells and tissues. The method most labs are using for ssqPCR is unreliable.

22 Oct 2009